検索キーワード： 言語学

A man stands on Owl Creek Bridge with his hands tied, preparing to face death by hanging. Then the ground slips out from under him, the rope breaks, and he has a moment to reimagine his future. Praised for its experimental shifts in time and surprise ending, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” is not one to miss. It has been hailed by Kurt Vonnegut as “the greatest American short story.”

Sketches New and Old is a compilation of fictional stories written by Mark Twain. Among them is "A Ghost Story". In each story, one can catch a great sense of Twain's humor and creativity. These classic sketches from Twain are no longer than 10 minutes, but all show his quick witted humor in response to the events of the day.

From paddy wagon to rush hour, New York City has given us a number of our popular words and phrases, along the way fashioning a recognizable dialect all its own. Often imitated and just as often ridiculed, New York English has its own identity, imbued with the rich cultural history of (as New Yorkers tell it) the greatest city in the world. In You Talkin' to Me?, E. J. White explores the hidden history of English in New York City - a history that encompasses social class, immigration, culture, economics, and, of course, real estate.

First published in 1853 amidst rumors that Thomas Jefferson fathered children with one of his slaves, Clotel is a fictional chronicle of one such child. After Jefferson's death, his mistress and her two daughters are auctioned. One daughter, Clotel, is purchased by a white man from Virginia who impregnates her. Despite the promise of marriage, Clotel is instead sold to another man and separated from her daughter. After escaping from the slave dealer, Clotel returnss to Virginia to reunite with her daughter - now a slave in her father's house.

Alexandra Bergsons, the daughter of Swedish immigrants, inherits her family's ailing farm in Hanover, Nebraska upon the death of her father. Over the years, she turns the farm into a successful enterprise. However, success has not brought peace, as passion and love intervene.

What would you do if you had discovered that the planet was about to be engulfed in a belt of poisonous "ether" from outer space? Professor Challenger invites a hand-picked crew of adventurers and scientists to his home outside London, which has been fortified with several hours' worth of oxygen. Challenger & Co. assemble in front of a picture window to witness the end of all life on the planet.

Outside the ruins of San Francisco, a former UC Berkeley professor of literature recounts the chilling sequence of events which led to his current lowly state - a gruesome pandemic which killed nearly every living soul on the planet, in a matter of days. Modern civilization tottered and fell, and a new race of barbarians - the western world's brutalized workers - assumed power everywhere. Over the space of a few decades, all learning has been lost.

Though we're known as a nation of English speakers, the linguistic map of the United States is hardly monochromatic. While much ado has been made about the role that Spanish may play in our national future, it would be a gross misrepresentation to label America a bilingual country. On the contrary, our languages are as varied as our origins. There is Basque in Nevada, Arabic in Detroit, Gullah in South Carolina. We speak European, Asian, and American Indian languages; we speak creoles, jargons, and pidgins.

Billy Byrne is a low class American born in Chicago's ghetto. He grows up a thief and a mugger. "Billy was a mucker, a hoodlum, a gangster, a thug, a tough." He is not chivalrous nor kind, and has only meager ethics - never giving evidence against a friend or leaving someone behind. When falsely accused of murder, he flees to San Francisco and is shanghaied aboard a ship. The ship's secret mission is soon enacted - the hijacking of a specific yacht to take a millionaire's daughter, Barbara Harding, for ransom.

Michael O'Halloran is the charming Gene Stratton-Porter novel of an orphaned newspaper seller who asks nothing of the world except to "be square". The book presents a vivid description of American life in 1914 and, though the characters suffer many hardships, the overall tone is so upbeat that it's easy to see why this book outsold Pollyanna in 1916. Stratton-Porter's skills as a naturalist make the country scenes especially vibrant. Her ear for dialogue is unsurpassed, demonstrating to the listener that, if life in America wasn't like this, it should have been.

With the speed of the great apes, Tarzan rushed through the jungle toward his home and family. But he was already too late. The marauders had been there before him. His farm was in shambles and no one was left alive. Of his beloved wife there was only a charred, blackened corpse, still wearing the rings he had given her. Silently, he buried the body and swore his terrible vengeance against those who had done this terrible deed. Then he set out grimly to track them...

Nome, where gold glitters in the sand and armies of men come to scoop it out. For the lucky ones, fortunes are made overnight. But fortunes can be lost just as fast. Claim jumpers are as thick as fleas. With the backing of a greedy judge, big-city interests are moving in and seizing small claims through smart, corrupt, legal manipulations. Tricked by the city slickers and frustrated by the corrupt court, the hardy miners take matters into their own hands.

This time Tom Swift is off to Alaska to hunt for the valley of gold. His friend Abe Abercrombie, an old miner, claims to know approximately where it lies: "up where the icebergs and caves of ice are." But he needs Tom and his airplane to help him locate the exact spot. Unknown to Tom, his chief rival, Andy Foger, gets wind of the project and vows to beat Tom to the prize. Unknown to both are the Alaskan natives who will kill to protect their gold...

Between Conniston, of His Majesty's Royal Northwest Mounted Police, and Keith, the outlaw, there was a striking physical and facial resemblance. Both had observed it, of course. It gave them a sort of confidence in each other. Between them it hovered in a subtle and unanalyzed presence that was constantly suggesting to Conniston a line of action that would have made him a traitor to his oath of duty. For nearly a month he had crushed down the whispered temptings of this thing between them.

After the death of his mother, Neewa the black bear cub, is captured by Challoner, the woodsman. Neewa soon learns that the woodsman and his Husky pup, Miki, are his friends. The bear and the dog become inseparable playmates. But their fun and games become of secondary importance when Challoner’s canoe overturns in river rapids causing the two to become separated from Challoner and finally responsible for their own survival in the wilderness.

After two hellish years on the rim of the Arctic, Philip Weyman stumbles back toward civilization, half-starved and half-crazy. He stumbles onto Josephine Adare, a beautiful woman living alone in the wilderness. She asks for his help, “I need you to pose as my husband to help me save my home from a band of outlaws and cutthroats.” She persuades him to stay and fight for her. But he has no idea he will be joining a battle with the silent strength of the Cree Nation as his ally. Nor does he realize, the final battle will require every ounce of his strength and will...

When attractive, impulsive English widow Lilia takes a holiday in Italy, she causes a scandal by marrying Gino, a dashing and highly unsuitable Italian 12 years her junior. Her prim, snobbish in-laws make no attempt to hide their disapproval, and when Lilia's decision eventually brings disaster, her English relatives embark on an expedition to face the uncouth foreigner.

A British lady seeks "the cure" among an assorted group of Germans in such tragic-comedic tales as "Germans at Meat", "The Sister of the Baroness", "Frau Fischer", "Frau Brechmacher Attends a Wedding", "The Modern Soul", "At Lehman's", "The Luft Bad", "A Birthday", "The-Child-Who-Was-Tired", "The Advanced Lady", "The Swing of the Pendulum", and "A Blaze".

What was Anthony Trollope's favorite Anthony Trollope book? Which was the most difficult for him to write? When he settled down by the fire for a good read, whose books did he choose? What nonliterary profession occupied him for much of his life? Learn the answers to these and other questions as one of the great authors in literature takes you on a guided tour of his personal and literary life.

In this haunting tale, Gerald Roylake returns home after his father's death. He becomes reacquainted with Christal Toller, the millkeeper's daughter, but is challenged at every turn by the man who is known only as the Lodger.